Josias Clement Rantzau
Josias started his career at the German Foreign Office in 1928. He worked abroad in Stockholm, Brussels, London and New York.He joined the NSDAP first in 1938, but was close friends with such figures from the anti-Hitler opposition as Adam von Trott zu Solz, whom he met in New York in 1927, and both attended meetings of the Kreslau Circle, a group of Hitler opponents around Counselor Helmuth graf von Moltke.
von Trott started his career in the Foreign Office in June 1940.
Other anti-Hitler contacts were Hans von Dohanyi and Ulrich von Hamel.
Some, however, on ethical and religious grounds, were opposed to the idea of assassinating Hitler.
Trying not to become too closely involved -in an assassination-, it is generally thought he applied for a position in Bucharest where he started in July 1944 as Counselor. There he must have been in contact with Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat. Both were captured in September 1944 and sent to Russian prisons. Josias was investigated by the Soviet Military Intelligence (SMERSH/MGB/GPU), convicted as a spy in 1948 and sent to one of the labor camps surrounding the city of Vorkuta, most likely Temnikovsky (Datrovlag/Special Camp 3), where he died in 1950. The train station there was Pot'ma.
Information supplied by Dr Vadim Birstein, Member of the International Commission on Raoul Wallenberg, 1990. (He provided a copy of the application form Josias sent to the Foreign Office)